Dent faces underdog challenger

Democrat challenger would seem to have slim chance against 4-term congressman.

Rick Daugherty is a Democratic congressional candidate for the 15th District. (THE MORNING CALL )

April 26, 2012|By Nicole Radzievich", Of The Morning Call

Democrat Rick Daugherty probably could find some inspiration in Rocky, Seabiscuit or even Susan Boyle.

As Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent's next challenger, Daugherty is clearly the underdog.

A longtime social worker with an anemic campaign fund, Daugherty faces a four-term U.S. representative who has developed a successful brand as a moderate Republican. Dent far exceeds Daugherty in fundraising (Dent has 132 times more money in the bank), is a tough campaigner (Dent has never lost an election in his 20 years in office) and commands consistent crossover support from Democrats.

And it's going to get even tougher this year as the newly configured 15th District reaches beyond the Lehigh Valley to the Susquehanna River, absorbing rural, red portions of Dauphin, Lebanon and Berks counties along the way.

"It's going to be hard for Rick Daugherty — I can't overstate that, given Charlie Dent's past performance," said Chris Borick, a political scientist at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. "He's proven himself to be an adept candidate, a strong fundraiser — someone capable of strong campaigning. This presents significant challenges to Rick."

Daugherty, a 51-year-old executive director of the Lehigh County Senior Center, won the Democratic nomination this week against a better funded Jackson Eaton, a 34-year-old attorney and one-time Dent volunteer. In an era of year-round fundraising and SuperPACs, Daugherty raised less than $11,000 for the primary and won without any commercials, mailers or phone banks.

He used the Internet a little — a Facebook page with irregular updates and a few amateur videos posted on YouTube. But he didn't design a social media campaign — the poor candidate's tool to level the playing field — missing out on an opportunity to go viral and become a household name.

Instead, Daugherty — a two-time chairman of the Lehigh County Democrats — relied on old-fashioned campaigning: meeting people, networking with party and union members and talking about his platform at media-covered debates. In short, he said, his message of preserving Medicare and re-evaluating recent trade agreements connected with voters.

Daugherty knows he'll have to raise more money for the general election, but his sights aren't set on the nearly $2 million that Dent's last challenger, Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, raised two years ago. Daugherty figures $200,000 to $500,000 should get his message out by November.

Dent and Daugherty are quite familiar with each other. Daugherty worked in the office of U.S. Rep. Paul McHale, the last Democrat to represent the 15th District, when Dent was in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

Dent's mother is a member of the Lehigh County Senior Center, and Daugherty's wife is good friends with Dent's chief of staff. After Daugherty confirmed last summer that he'd run, he and Dent talked for two hours over coffee at Hava Java in Allentown.

"There's a lot he can talk about — legitimate differences between us," Daugherty said. "This has always been about the issues."

But the issues Daugherty plans to push also make him an underdog. While he intends to address the broader issues of employment, he said he also wants to hammer on the issue that got him into the race: Medicare.

Medicare resonated with Daugherty, an advocate for the elderly. He criticized Dent for supporting a budget measure that would have changed the entitlement program. The issue played well in the primary. And it resonated with senior citizens, who vote even during low turnouts like this spring.

Dent said he is working for ways to ensure the program's future solvency, and cast Daugherty as having a hands-off approach that would lead to benefits being cut because there won't be enough money.

Dent said his main campaign focus will be "jobs and the economy."

And that's the top issue for voters, said G. Terry Madonna, the veteran pollster and political science professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

"Medicare is not the issue that is going to get someone elected to Congress. The best argument would be incumbency: 'Here's a guy in office for X number of years and we're still in a recession. What has he done for job creation?' " Madonna said. "I'm not saying that it's true in this case, but that's the type of argument you have to make in [today's] political environment … [Daugherty's] not going to win on a narrowly focused issue."

Madonna said the national mood isn't helpful to Daugherty. While it's a presidential year, President Barack Obama so far doesn't have the energy that he had four years ago and recent polls show that he leads the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, by just a few percentage points.

Meanwhile, Dent has a history of appealing to voters — even when the political wind is whipping in his face. Dent defended his seat in 2008 when Obama was elected and in 2006 during backlash over the Iraq war as Democrats picked up seats in Congress.